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The Cost of Partisan Politics on Minority Diversity of the Federal Bench

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The Cost of Partisan Politics on Minority Diversity of the Federal Bench Only Skin Deep?: The Cost of Partisan Politics on Minority Diversity of the Federal Bench ∗ SYLVIA R. LAZOS VARGAS INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1423 I. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO THE JUDICIARY FROM DIVERSITY?................1426 A. Descriptive Diversity ........................................................................1428 B. Symbolic Diversity............................................................................1430 C. Viewpoint Diversity ..........................................................................1432 II. FEDERAL COURTS ARE BECOMING MORE DESCRIPTIVELY DIVERSE,YET MINORITY JUDGES REMAIN UNDERREPRESENTED......................................1437 A. African American Diversity on the Federal Bench...........................1437 B. Latina/o Diversity on the Federal Bench..........................................1438 C. Asian Pacific Islander Diversity on the Federal Bench....................1439 III. CONTRASTING POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS IN DIVERSIFYING THE BENCH .................................................................................................1439 A. President Bill Clinton: A Judiciary that “Looks Like America” ......1440 B. President George W. Bush: First “Strict Constructionists” and then Diversity ...........................................................................................1442 IV. HOW THE CONFIRMATION “WARS”SHAPE WHAT KIND OF MINORITIES SERVE ON THE BENCH............................................................................................1448 A. The Extra Burden for Racial Minority Candidates: Do Not Give Racial Offense..............................................................................................1451 B. Minority Nominees’ “Confirmation Wars” During the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations......................................................1454 V. VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY:“VOICE OF COLOR” CAN ONLY BE FAINTLY HEARD1471 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................1474 INTRODUCTION This article explores the difficulties encountered in diversifying the federal bench and why the partisanship of the confirmation process decreases the diversity of viewpoints on the bench. Why care about diversity on the bench? Part I summarizes the arguments. Presidents who have the power to appoint federal judges have realized the powerful symbolism of breaking barriers in naming minorities to previously all-white ∗ Sylvia R. Lazos Vargas is the Justice Myron Leavitt Professor of constitutional law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The author would like to acknowledge the invaluable help of research assistant Zoe Coburn and research librarian Matthew Wright, and the insightful comments of Tuan Samahon, Jean Sternlight, and Mitu Gulati, as well as the participants in the William S. Boyd School of Law scholarship workshop and the Mid-Atlantic People of Color Conference held at the University of Maryland. I also want to thank Bob Wood and the editors of the Indiana Law Journal for their excellent work, patience and dedication. 1424 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 83:1423 institutions. When Justice Thurgood Marshall took the oath as the ninety-ninth Justice of the United States, it made a powerful statement about the values of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Senate that confirmed him, and the nation.1 As Juan Williams describes in his biography of Justice Marshall, such moments are a “big thing . even the ones who hated blacks came to the Court” on that day.2 Scholars champion diversity for substantive reasons. When diverse viewpoints are introduced into the judicial decision making, the deliberation of collegial courts is “sharpen[ed].”3 Assumptions that reflect majority viewpoints are questioned and the “outsider” viewpoint is taken more seriously. An expansion of the dialogic landscape leads to better decisions. Furthermore, when courts are visibly diverse, decisions become more credible and legitimate.4 As a nation we have made progress in the area of diversity. The good news is that descriptive diversity, the reflection of the judiciary in miniature of the people at large, has improved because of concerted efforts by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. As Part II discusses, data compiled from the Federal Judicial Center show that representation of minorities as of January 2008 on the federal bench is at an all time high.5 Tables 1-5 in the appendix summarize the most recent numbers. The politics of the appointment processes of the last two Presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, is discussed in Part III. These presidents had contrasting styles. President Clinton was flexible, willing to accommodate his political opponents. By contrast, President Bush held firm to his political positions and has nominated appointees that would be “strict constructionists.” Both Presidents valued diversity in nominating judges, but for different reasons. Both had to deal with a senatorial confirmation process that had become partisan and acrimonious. Scholarship is nearly unanimous in decrying the partisanship that has infected the process of selection and confirmation of federal judges.6 This article offers the perspective that the politics of the confirmation process is not costless. To be clear, partisan politics has made the confirmation process treacherous for all appointees, but particularly for minority nominees. The obvious consequences are that because of unbridled partisanship, minority judges are more likely to be derailed in the confirmation process. There is another cost, which is not as obvious: less ideological and viewpoint diversity among minority judges as well. Although this article concentrates on minority judges, the same trends can be seen for other nontraditional judges, such as women and judges who hold ideological viewpoints that neither party embraces. Some commentators have observed that increasingly judges who are likely to be successful in the nominating process must be mediocre, rather than excellent.7 Be average, don’t stick out, seems to be the message. By having ideas (and being public 1. JUAN WILLIAMS,THURGOOD MARSHALL:AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY 338 (1998). 2. Id. 3. See infra note 108. 4. See infra Part I.C. 5. See infra text accompanying notes notes 67-69. 6. See infra text accompanying notes 155–58. 7. See infra text accompanying notes 160–61. 2008] THE COST OF PARTISAN POLITICS 1425 about them), a nominee might be opposed as “too” ideological and therefore “out of step” with America.8 Part IV.A proposes a corollary to this “don’t stick out” thesis with respect to diversity. Nontraditional judges who can successfully navigate the nomination and confirmation process should avoid “performing” their racial identity in a way that will make white Senators feel uncomfortable about race. Minorities run the risk of triggering negative stereotypes if they make their race salient in the confirmation process. Latent stereotypes that everyone carries in their heads bolster partisan attacks that otherwise would be unmeritorious. The inferences about a nominee’s character do not have to be spelled out if the unconscious narratives that we carry in our heads about minorities and women are triggered. A liberal minority nominee clearly becomes “too liberal” and “out of step” with America if her race becomes salient, and a conservative nominee becomes a potentially dangerous minority, invoking the fears of those who oppose the jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas. Part IV.B provides the best evidence available to support this thesis: cases from the last two decades of confirmation “battles.” Some of these have become well known, such as the confirmations of Ronnie White, Miguel Estrada, and Janice Rogers Brown. When these cases are examined holistically, one can draw the conclusion that minorities are highly vulnerable during the confirmation process, because the “everything goes” ethics of politics make them targets of opposition: sometimes partisan, sometimes petty, and often racially tinged. Part V examines judicial behavioralist data showing that the minority judges who have been appointed by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are as conservative, and often more conservative, than their non-minority counterparts. These studies show a decline in disagreement between judges of color and their white counterparts, particularly in controversial civil rights cases where differing perspectives regarding the “racial facts of life” are most likely to arise. These data indicate that the hoped-for benefits of dialogic diversity are not materializing, or if they are, they are occurring at such a discrete level that a “voice of color” is difficult to discern. The highly politicized confirmation process has discouraged independent candidates, those with a distinctive “voice of color,” and instead has homogenized the candidates who successfully ascend to the bench. Who cares whether judges “look like America” if, because of politics, a “voice of color” has become a “whisper of color”? One answer is that there is value to descriptive and symbolic diversity. As Part I describes, barrier-breaking appointments make a statement about our civic joint values. Another answer is that we all should be deeply concerned that the federal bench not just “look” different, but also “sound” different. If the “voice of color” is hardly noticeable, or if minorities who are most
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